Submitted photo
Pictured are students and faculty attending the all-black Lincoln High School, which closed in 1971.

Some local residents who lived in Lincoln Parish in the late 1960s and early 1970s say the integration of schools was a smooth process here.

Though the Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that segregation was illegal, Lincoln Parish did not fully desegregate local schools until 1971 when the all black Lincoln High School closed its doors for the last time.

Lincoln Parish School Board representative George Mack — who began his tenure on the board shortly after desegregation began — said the school only closed for two years.

“I went on the school board in 1972,” Mack said. “I convinced the board that it was a waste of taxpayers’ money to have to lose the facility. The members opened it back up into the Lincoln Learning Center.”

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